theboyangel Posted April 9, 2017 Share Posted April 9, 2017 I don't even fancy alcohol therapy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Pangloss Posted April 9, 2017 Share Posted April 9, 2017 12 hours ago, HanoiVillan said: How early everything closes in the UK. I chat with foreigners living in the UK every day as part of my job, and when asked what they don't like about living here, one of the top two complaints is always how early everything shuts. They're often surprised when I enthusiastically agree with this, but having lived in other countries it pisses me off no end. At half past seven this evening, I decided to go on a day trip tomorrow and wanted to pick a couple of things up - I checked online, is Merry Hill open at half past seven on a Saturday evening? Is it ****. At half past nine, I went for a walk around Blackheath for an hour. What's open? Pubs, and a Pizza Hut Delivery. No other businesses. I hate how we all just retreat into our little rabbit hutches as soon as the sun goes down. Rubbish. London is very much the exception to this, everything seems to be open late, at least in zone 1! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted April 9, 2017 VT Supporter Share Posted April 9, 2017 6 minutes ago, Dr_Pangloss said: London is very much the exception to this, everything seems to be open late, at least in zone 1! Indeed, and the point is not 'staid, stuffy Britain vs. The Cool World of Abroad', but big cities v. small towns and rural areas. London and Los Angeles are 24/7, Douglas IoM and Drygulch Arkansas aren't. That's fine with me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted April 9, 2017 Share Posted April 9, 2017 (edited) In a bar with the missus last night, we're stood next to some woman at the bar, she says her names something and offers her hand for shaking, I tell her my name and shake hands, she licked my hand...my missus went nuts at me, I just about stopped her from storming our, still moaning about it this morning Edited April 9, 2017 by villa4europe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandy Posted April 9, 2017 Moderator Share Posted April 9, 2017 10 minutes ago, mjmooney said: Drygulch Arkansas They've a new album out soon and are supporting the Butthole Surfers on tour . Not really Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mottaloo Posted April 9, 2017 Share Posted April 9, 2017 14 hours ago, Xela said: Now, I was apprehensive at first as the team in India would be doing my paperwork (legal and financial documentation relating to deals I have secured) and was worried about if the standards and service would slip in going from a UK team to an Indian team. How wrong was I! I wish i could share your enthusiasm xela. We outsourced a lot of our IT services to 2 different companies based in india (not before the poor buggers earmarked for redundancy had to train up their indian counterparts) and it's safe to say that dealing with the "third parties" is 99% pure bloody frustration ! Language difficulties, dealing with their call centres who seem to be unable to deviate from a script and the pure fact that we are just one of many accounts they deal with gives the distinct impression that they dont "get" the pressures of our business, which is particularly galling when our own inhouse team were on the ball - not always perfect but knew our industry. Cheap isn't always best Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted April 9, 2017 Share Posted April 9, 2017 It's very much a generalisation of a country with hundreds of millions of people, but my experience of working with probably a couple of dozen offshoring Indian companies is that they can follow a process perfectly and efficiently. Admin work will get done fine. Following a script or documented process goes fine. Ask them to think independently or do something that's not in their process, without step by step instructions, and you're out of luck, which is a bit of a pain in the arse for tech work. Having said that, the companies in the UK that offshore to India are doing so to save costs. They inevitably go for the cheapest offshoring solution they can find. The best and brightest Indian tech workers certainly aren't working for the big offshoring companies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StefanAVFC Posted April 9, 2017 Share Posted April 9, 2017 My company are offshoring tonnes from the UK to our branch in Poland. To be honest, it's cheaper and IMO the provision is better as we are a centralised centre doing all Service Desk, whereas Service Desk in the UK for my company is scattered all over the place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Albrighton Posted April 9, 2017 VT Supporter Share Posted April 9, 2017 1 hour ago, villa4europe said: In a bar with the missus last night, we're stood next to some woman at the bar, she says her names something and offers her hand for shaking, I tell her my name and shake hands, she licked my hand...my missus went nuts at me, I just about stopped her from storming our, still moaning about it this morning Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted April 9, 2017 Share Posted April 9, 2017 1 hour ago, villa4europe said: In a bar with the missus last night, we're stood next to some woman at the bar, she says her names something and offers her hand for shaking, I tell her my name and shake hands, she licked my hand...my missus went nuts at me, I just about stopped her from storming our, still moaning about it this morning Whoa! Lets go back to the hand licking... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugeley Villa Posted April 9, 2017 Share Posted April 9, 2017 1 hour ago, villa4europe said: In a bar with the missus last night, we're stood next to some woman at the bar, she says her names something and offers her hand for shaking, I tell her my name and shake hands, she licked my hand...my missus went nuts at me, I just about stopped her from storming our, still moaning about it this morning Standard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted April 9, 2017 Share Posted April 9, 2017 1 hour ago, mottaloo said: I wish i could share your enthusiasm xela. We outsourced a lot of our IT services to 2 different companies based in india (not before the poor buggers earmarked for redundancy had to train up their indian counterparts) and it's safe to say that dealing with the "third parties" is 99% pure bloody frustration ! Language difficulties, dealing with their call centres who seem to be unable to deviate from a script and the pure fact that we are just one of many accounts they deal with gives the distinct impression that they dont "get" the pressures of our business, which is particularly galling when our own inhouse team were on the ball - not always perfect but knew our industry. Cheap isn't always best Ah, I think the difference for me is that we haven't outsourced the work to a third party. We employ 30,000 people in India so have merely moved the work to one of our centres over there. They have no direct contact with my clients, they just need to follow instructions and my requests and they do the basics fantastically well as @Davkaus says. They aren't being asked to think outside the box. Any query they have comes through me via text, email or instant message. I've never even spoken to them on the phone! They are a good team and are immeasurably better at doing the work than the UK team were. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted April 9, 2017 Share Posted April 9, 2017 21 minutes ago, Xela said: Whoa! Lets go back to the hand licking... I know yeah! It was weird as ****, my reaction according to the missus was obviously wrong but I honestly didn't know what to do! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted April 9, 2017 Share Posted April 9, 2017 3 minutes ago, villa4europe said: I know yeah! It was weird as ****, my reaction according to the missus was obviously wrong but I honestly didn't know what to do! Ha! What did you do? Shouldn't your missus have directed her ire towards the hand licking female? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted April 9, 2017 Share Posted April 9, 2017 i kind of shot my hand back and said i dont play that game and no apparently it was my fault for telling her my name Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted April 9, 2017 Share Posted April 9, 2017 On-topic at the moment. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mottaloo Posted April 9, 2017 Share Posted April 9, 2017 1 hour ago, Xela said: Ah, I think the difference for me is that we haven't outsourced the work to a third party. Ah fair point, i just assumed it was similar to my situation. Ok, I'm off to cut the grass so you could say i'm "doing the needful on a priorty basis !" Jeez..... i'm even sounding like one of them now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted April 9, 2017 Share Posted April 9, 2017 Not having a garden on days like this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharkyvilla Posted April 9, 2017 Share Posted April 9, 2017 Had my first encounter with a waspy-bee type thing in the park today. They can piss right off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post blandy Posted April 9, 2017 Moderator Popular Post Share Posted April 9, 2017 Bees are brilliant. Wasps less so. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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